The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) are working tirelessly to ensure reliable water supply to schools in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality.

The SANDF has provided extra water tankers to augment the trucks provided by the DWS through Rand Water to ensure that schools have sufficient water for the learners and staff to regularly wash and keep their hands clean and healthy at all times.

The Department also distributed sanitizers and cleaning materials to Khokhovela and Mphaku primary schools to ensure that the learners always have their hands clean and also to ensure that the surfaces are clean and disinfected at all times.

Keeping hands and surfaces clean plays a major role in curbing the spread of the coronavirus in the school environment.

The Sanitation unit of DWS also performed a handwashing demonstration to educate and remind the learners about the proper way of washing hands.

In her response to the interventions, the Executive Mayor of Bushbuckridge Local Municipality, Cllr Sylvia Nxumalo thanked DWS and the SANDF for their contribution in ensuring that the return to school is made smooth and comfortable for the learners and educators.

“Thank you very much DWS and SANDF for your presence and interventions. When the year started, no one knew there will be COVID-19. We have come to say to learners and educators, welcome back. It is not going to be easy, we have an abnormal situation and it is not going to be work as usual,”she said.

“Together we can be able to pull through, that is why we brought all the departments under one roof to say let us work together. This is the time to work together as together we can fight and win the battle.”